Soon after arriving for our new lives of house-sitting a chateau in France, the mayor told us at our first dinner party, that during World War II, our 16th century apartment once hid the local Résistance. Warning: Big dollops of WWII history follow …
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House-Sitting in France Former Witte Museum director Mark Lane is spending a year house-sitting in France. Entries will come from select letters from the past year mixed with new additions. We look back on this with horror at why we did it, as we were still living out of boxes. February 24, 2007 We still […]
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The most discouraging days were during the first. Texas winter days didn’t prepare us for the first, long, cold Norman winter. Now we love it. Feb., 8 2007 Again, please forgive the package this information comes in. Thanks to many of you for writing and please forgive our tardy responses; Internet cafe’s are becoming rarer […]
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Sandi’s biggest fear was that we’d have no friends, or perhaps we might make retired British friendships, but no real French friends. On early car treks through France, Bed and Breakfast owners warned us to stick with educated Paris, adding that the countryside lacks the mental bubbly champagne we might need. Normandy is cider country, […]
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It’s France and it’s Free. I repeated this mantra many times to Sandi, my wife, and myself when our first months here were un-customer friendly, and cold drafts whipped through the solid stonewall. To live in France had been Sandi’s dream since her French language major days at the University of Texas. My dream was […]
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